changeinnovation-blog

[changeinnovation-blog]

Finally Found a Focus

We were told to prepare for a meeting with a few staff members of the hospital. We were to prepare interview questions, and present our class project, ideas and solutions. Presenting is always scary for me, but I’m front of such important people who took time out of their day to allow us to interview them, I was extremely nervous. After lots of preparation, we finally presented and interviewed them. They all seemed extremely interested in what we were doing and even had their own committees that were working on similar ideas. They all seemed very friendly, and even taught each other some new things about the hospital. It was extremely inspiring to see that people would care so much about their workplace and would work hard to better it.

After an extremely informational meeting, we discussed and decided to focus on one idea. Our two ideas going in, were to improve patient support by providing them with a group of professionals that they can contact, and providing patients with the opportunity to work with an artist to create a form of art. There are social workers that do a great job at providing patients and family the resources they may need after treatment or surgery. The only fault we found with this method was that they were being reached out to after treatment. Our group inferred, that by proving patients these resources prior to treatment, they may be less frightened or anxious when going in, because they will be prepared for post treatment care. The art idea consisted of students from our own school choosing this option for a senior experience. Senior experience is a three-week program provides by our school that allows students to observe a job in a field in which they hope to study. Our group came up with the idea to have interested art students complete their senior experience with Fox Chase, by meeting with the patient periodically to create a piece of art. The artists and patient or family member, will be working together to create a story tellinng piece, and creating something beautiful from the patients pain. Both ideas had potential and dealt with needs that we had previously discussed. We finally chose to focus on the art idea. Because of the guidelines provided by both Fox Chase and William Tenent, there are still logistics with time management and how to carry the idea out that need to be agreed upon. The idea has great potential to hopefully become something bigger in the future. Right now we are starting with just two artist because this is the very first time. Looking forward, I would hope to have plenty of artist from our school work with many patients, and posssibly fund for art supplies by having an art show. I am grateful for having the opportunity to create something as insipiring as this. This idea has shown me that nothing can hold us back as a group, if there is a wall, we find a way around it. I can’t wait to see what more my group can accomplish!

[changeinnovation-blog]

Ideas for Making a Change

After our tour of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, we each wrote some ideas of problems we noticed throughout the tour. We combined our ideas as a group and chose which ones were most important to us, or worth pursuing. At first we had noticed problems with the entertainment in the hospital, the lack of history acknowledged, and many more inconveniences. We narrowed our ideas down to just two, the need for more art incorporated into the treatment of patient and the need for patients to feel secure before receiving treatment by providing them a social worker with contacts. As we walked through tour the halls of the hospital, we realized that very few halls were decorated with art. There was one wall with beautiful flowers painted on them, and our group was enchanted by the mural. We were inspired to create more art to be displayed throughout the hospital. Our first idea is to creat a form of art therapy, where a student or volunteer would work with the patient to create art. This would allow the patient to have something to do rather than focus on the treatment and pain, while also allowing an art student or volunteer to practice their art while being informed about cancer patients.

Prior to the visit, we had done some research by looking online and talking to family members who had encounters or were caregivers of cancer patients. We gained the insight that cancer patients were provided contacts to professionals with aid, such as therapists, by a social worker who was assigned to them. These social workers only helped after you were admitted and being treated or post surgery. Our group collaborated and came up with the idea to provide each patient a social worker with a list of people to reach out to for help, but prior to treatment. With this idea, we hope to relief the patient and their caregiver of some stress they may have about post treatment care.

Moving on, we hope to focus on one idea and figure out how we may carry forth this solution. I have some worries as to how we may make a difference with such a small solution. It is important to stay focused and see that every little thing can make a change. Throughout this process, we must keep in mind the reason why we are doing this, to improve the experience of a patient in a crucial moment when they are fighting vigorously for their life.

[changeinnovation-blog]

Tea Time

We had the opportunity to go on an in-depth three hour long tour of Fox Chase Cancer Center.

We began the tour by asking Dr. Glenn Rall and Dr. Amanda Purdy questions in the conference room. The room had a cabin-like feel to eat, with a lot of wood making up the walls and floor. They gave us much information, such as the communications between the research and medicine of the hospital. When looking at the hospital from a family member perspective, I had no idea that there was so much research organized within the hospital. Also, I had only ever seen the inpatient areas, so I did not expect the hospital to be so big. They showed us many sections they had never shown tour groups before, we even go to see the infusion room at a quick glance. The room was very saddening and gloomy, as were the patient rooms because of the blandness and empty walls. We were shown the court yard, which was very beautiful and had lots of space to work on, but because of the weather, had limits to how it could be used. We were shown many other aspects of the hospital, such as the library, the chapel, and auditoriums. The chapel resonated with me because it had a eye-catching mural across a whole wall, which added to the peaceful aura of the room. The chapel also had a book where visitors left a quote or their story. They even had tea time, where they had free tea and snacks for all the staff. After the detailed tour, we were tasked to come up with ideas or thoughts on what we could improve. We began with problems that we found as a group.

Check out my next post to see what problems and solutions we came up with.

[changeinnovation-blog]

Get to know me

Hi, my name is Diraya Serrano, a senior in the Student Design Lab. In this class, we are challenged to stray from our regular thinking and design new solutions to existing problems. I decided to take this class because of my interest in hands-on activities, and the opportunity for a change in the way of thinking. I enjoy learning and creating new ideas, but school doesn't always allow me to do both. This class is giving me the opportunity to express and carry out my ideas.

[changeinnovation-blog]

Fox Chase Cancer Center

We are getting the chance to work with Fox Chase Cancer Center through our Student Design class to find ways in which our group can improve the facility. Join me as I take on this challenge and document my journey.